


Lifelines

by Elleth



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hands, Holding Hands, Huddling For Warmth, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2019-01-04 08:38:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12165372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elleth/pseuds/Elleth
Summary: Sheltering in the run-down house, Emil and Lalli find something to hold on to.





	Lifelines

**Author's Note:**

  * For [straightforwardly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/straightforwardly/gifts).



> A little thing for you. Enjoy! ♥

The palms of Lalli's gloves tasted like burnt leather. Removing them, the palms of Lalli's hands tasted like the air under a Mora street lamp in winter, icy cold but potent and alive with static and ozone. 

A few hours ago, Emil hadn't been sure that magic was real at all. His doubts far outnumbered the things he'd seen on the expedition. Now it didn't even surprise him any longer that magic had a taste all of its own when he pressed his lips against Lalli's icy hands and tried to breathe warmth back into him where the fire seemed to have no effect. 

Lalli didn't stir, but crackling energy still sang in him, and there could be no doubt that he still clung to some sort of life. It prickled in Emil's lips and surged along Lalli's bony fingers into the joints of Emil's hands when he rubbed them together, slid their fingers into a tangle, and held on tight, as though Lalli might slip away if he didn't. Now that they were safe, Emil was sure he could feel an insistent tug on his hand, pulling him under and into sleep as sure as Lalli was. He cupped his other hand over their linked ones, clasped them between their bodies like a glowing ember for warmth, and leaned his forehead against Lalli's under their withered blanket. 

Sleep held indistinct dreams of becalmed water and stars, and Lalli clinging to him like a drowning man to a lifeline.

When the winter morning reached thin, grey fingers into the room through an eastern window, Emil woke bleary and cold, with the crescent moon-shapes of fingernails pressed into the backs of his hands. Lalli clasped him around the wrists like a vice, and something - a dim echo of the dream, perhaps - told Emil to not let go, even though his fingers prickled like they were bloodless and half asleep, no longer with any spark of magic of the past night. 

Not letting go meant that he could not get up to rekindle the fire that had gone out during the night; the lingering scent of wood smoke held no remaining trace of warmth, but their bodies had folded into and around each other during the night in ways that'd make getting up a chore in the first place. He pressed a kiss to the back of Lalli's hand, tasting salt water, the same that clung to his own tongue. 

Lalli's naked chest rose suddenly, sharply, against Emil's in a gasp, and under the tangles of his hair, Lalli's eyes opened into a sliver of unfocused, silvery blue. The grip on Emil's wrists relaxed enough to count as a caress now, fingertips soft along the pulse points of his wrists, a lifeline trailing to hold on to. 

As much as he could - or thought he could - Emil grasped it all. 

Next Emil looked, next he thought he could breathe again, Lalli's eyes had closed, but his touch left flickers of magic in its wake, half-remembered afterimages from any time Lalli had touched his hands, or had wanted to, sleeping with their fingers stretched toward one another. Emil didn't know what to make of that certainty - more magic, or just memory of something he'd failed to recognize? - but he let it lull him back to near-sleep, with Lalli's fingers warming against his skin. 

He'd be happy to remain as they were for a little longer, and let waking reach for them slowly.


End file.
